Newsletter - April 2010

Workshop on International Law

The Department of International Law (DIL) organized the tenth Workshop on International Law from February 2-5, 2010. This year the workshop took place in San José, Costa Rica, at the headquarters of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights.

The objective of this annual event is to bring together a group of professors of international law from the entire region to foster discussion of current issues in the field and matters related to the teaching of international law in universities throughout the Hemisphere. The workshops are held as part of the Inter-American Program for the Development of International Law established by AG/RES. 2503 (XXXIX-O/09), and the Department of International Law has been responsible for their implementation since 1997.

This year the participants included more than 24 distinguished professors and specialists from different countries of the region and Europe, and from the OAS General Secretariat. Noteworthy among them were professors from the English-speaking Caribbean, Latin America, Spain, the United States, and a large group from the host country, Costa Rica.

Some of the topics addressed during the event were democracy in the inter-American system, current developments in private international law, the teaching of international law, current issues in human rights, and new developments in the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, among others.

This was the first workshop to offer simultaneous interpretation, which made it possible for English-speaking professors to participate, thereby greatly enriching the dialogue among representatives of different legal systems.

It is anticipated that as a result of the workshop, participants will not only establish an important regional network but also adopt strategies for introducing certain topics related to the inter-American system in the curriculum of their respective educational institutions, and endeavor to implement the concrete proposals made during the workshop for teaching international law in the region.

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